In Binchy’s 1987 novel, an American moves his family to the rural Irish town of Mountfern

  1. Mountfern is a quiet Irish village until the arrival of an ambitious American called Patrick O’Neil.
  2. An American, Patrick O’Neill, has arrived in Mountfern – the Irish village that his impoverished grandfather emigrated from many years before. O’Neill has bought the ruins of Fernscourt, the big house, and plans to rebuild it as a hotel, but how will the locals feel?
  3. A year has passed since O’Neill arrived in the Irish village of Mountfern with plans to build a hotel.The ruins of old Ferncourt House have finally been demolished. On the day that Patrick’s friend Rachel arrives, Kate Ryan wanders into the path of one of the diggers.
  4. Patrick O’Neill has arrived from America with big plans for his ancestral village of Mountfern in Ireland. However, things have turned sour since Kate Ryan suffered a severe accident on the site of his hotel.
  5. After 18 months in New York, Rachel Fine has been summoned back to Ireland by Patrick O’Neill to oversee the decoration of his new hotel. Rachel has become a close friend of Kate Ryan, who is now in a wheelchair as a result of an accident on the site of the hotel, over three years ago
  6. Patrick O’Neill has almost realised his dream. The opening of his new hotel is in sight, but Kate Ryan’s compensation case is looming and Kerry’s gambling has further estranged father and son.

Starring David Soul as Patrick O’Neill